


On Display

by Shi_Toyu



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Family, Coming Out, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Paparazzi Bashing, Prompt Fill, Protective Avengers, Public Display of Affection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-27 06:46:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12075696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shi_Toyu/pseuds/Shi_Toyu
Summary: Bucky wants to show the world how much he loves Tony. He's just... a bit afraid of how the world will react.





	On Display

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CarpeDentum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarpeDentum/gifts).



> Carpe, you are a gift, and so I gift this to you.
> 
> Based on the prompt: PDA (Public Displays of Affection)

Bucky eyed the elderly couple across the ballroom, gaze lingering on where their hands were joined together. They gravitated around each other, never going far even when they had to be apart. Whenever they stopped to talk to someone, the woman slid her arm around her husband’s waist and he held her close. It was casual, automatic, and clearly done without forethought. Their love for each other could not have been plainer to anyone who laid eyes upon them.

It was in their looks back and forth, the way they sometimes just got caught up staring into each other’s eyes. Their gentle brushes against one another, their attentiveness. Bucky had been watching them for a while. He’d seen the way the man was able to order for them both at the bar with nothing more than a nod from his wife. He’d seen the way she’d plucked certain dishes from the passing servers and handed them right on over, obviously having not selected them for herself.

Things were easy between them, effortless. Most of all, though, their actions were telling. Bucky’s gut churned with jealousy.

He and Tony had been together for several months already and it was great. It really was. Tony was affectionate and pushed himself into Bucky’s space without a second thought, a fact that was comforting when compared to how most shied away from him or were understandably cautious. Even if Tony kept that behavior within the tower, it was still amazing to experience at all.

And it wasn’t like it was Tony’s fault that he didn’t show his affection for Bucky in the public eye. They’d agreed from the beginning to keep things low key when out and about for the sake of the tabloids not having a field day and having to deal with the whole media backlash that would follow. It’d been Bucky’s prerogative, even. Tony had been more than happy to shout their relationship from the rooftops from the get-go.

Still.

Bucky wasn’t sure if he was ready to take that next step. There was still so much negative media surrounding the Winter Soldier. He had a lot more support than he used to, but he was also pretty sure his kill count would be brought up for decades to come, no matter what he did in the name of saving humanity. There’d been an outright frenzy when one of the news outlets had managed to get their hands on his military record as a sniper, so it wasn’t even like it’d all been while he was under Hydra’s control. He’d even been forced to kill a few times since becoming an Avenger. He never liked it, but that didn’t change his willingness to do what was necessary.

It wasn’t all bad, of course. There was a lot more support for the Winter Soldier than Bucky would have ever expected. There was certainly a lot more than he deserved, after everything he’d done under Hydra’s banner. He had no right to complain. It was actually one of his motivations in wanting to keep his relationship with Tony from being too loudly advertised. He didn’t want his own reputation blowing back on Tony. (Something Tony had _laughed_ at when it was brought up, before going on to detail some of the more sordid events of his own past.)

None of that did anything to stop Bucky from wanting it, though. Tony deserved for the world to know he had someone who thought he was the center of their universe. He deserved to be able to do all those disgustingly couple-ish things Bucky knew he wanted to do, and that Bucky wanted to do with him. They deserved to be able to say they were together and show their middle fingers to anyone who gave them shit about it.

Hell, Steve had already made it extremely clear how ready he was to fight anyone who said a word against them or their relationship. He’d gotten all serious and broody over the idea that anyone wouldn’t be wholly in support of them in the first place, bless his pure, freedom-loving heart. There probably wouldn’t even be anything left for him after Pepper was done, anyway. She was terrifying in her protectiveness of Tony, which Bucky found far more gratifying than was probably healthy. (He was pretty sure if he ever had to go rogue and kill someone for hurting Tony, Pepper would be the one covering his back. Not that he’d want it any other way.)

Then there was Nat, and Clint, and Thor, and Bruce, and Coulson. Rhodey and Sam. Happy who’d given Bucky the world’s most awkwardly delivered shovel talk and Peter, Tony’s intern, who’d managed one that was as adorable as it was threatening. There was Tony’s entire PR team, not the SI one or the Avengers one, but the one _just_ for Tony. They’d turn any mal-intended journalist into mincemeat before you could even blink.

Come to think of it, Bucky wasn’t entirely sure why he’d been so worried about the media in the first place.

He and Tony had a solid relationship. There was no uncertainty between them. They both knew they were in this for the long haul, even if they’d only been together for a relatively short time. Neither of them was going anywhere. The media was going to have to find out about them eventually.

Bucky looked around, seeking out Tony where he was chatting up the vice president and the secretary of defense. He looked gorgeous in his perfectly-tailored silver suit, the lines of it hugging his body in a downright delicious way. Bucky easily spotted the small gaggle of fawning socialites not far away, the ones that always seemed to be hovering somewhere nearby whenever Tony came to events like this. He couldn’t even blame them. Tony was quite the catch. His feet carried him across the ballroom without conscious thought, sidestepping potential conversations before they could even get started.

The Winter Soldier was nothing if not focused on his mission.

It was the secretary of defense who noticed his approach first, the woman turning toward him with a firm nod and a hand extended for a shake. He smiled at her as he accepted the gesture.

“Mr. Barnes,” she greeted. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Likewise,” he agreed, moving on to shake the vice president’s hand as well. “It’s a lovely little shindig Tony’s managed to put on tonight.”

Tony, as expected, gave a disgruntled eye roll.

“’Shindig,’ he says.” Then, leaning in just a bit toward the secretary of defense in a conspiratorial kind of way, “You see the things I have to put up with?”

That earned him an amused look, if not a laugh. The secretary was a tough one, though, as Bucky knew well.

“As you were saying,” she persisted with their previous topic, clearly of a mind to see it through to the end, “about the Accords proposal?”

Tony smiled brilliantly at her as he launched back into his talk. Bucky was hardly listening, eyes glued to the way his lips still curled up into a hint of a smile. While normally he accompanied all his words with grandiose hand gestures, which he fervently denied had anything to do with his Italian roots, this time he kept one hand on his champagne glass and the other down at his side, right next to Bucky’s own.

Bucky had faced battle fields and supervillains, overwhelming odds and artillery, and yet still his heart pounded. He could feel it practically trying to crawl up and out of his throat as his fingers twitched in Tony’s direction. His hand inched across the space between them, cautious not to go too quickly. He almost pulled back completely when their skin finally touched, just the barest bit that could have been passed off as an accident, but Tony never gave him that chance. His own hand turned and took Bucky’s, twining their fingers together to secure them.

It was breathtaking how much longing and adoration one could put into a glance out of the corner of their eye, but Tony had always been awe-inspiring.

The last of the tension in Bucky’s shoulders drained away. This. This was exactly what he wanted. It didn’t matter what anyone else said or did, because they had no place here. This was Tony and Bucky’s. Just theirs. They were the only ones that mattered.

And Bucky didn’t care who else saw as he gave Tony’s hand a gentle squeeze.


End file.
